Modern vintage, lyrical tropes, and big bets: Moonshine (Young Gun Silver Fox)

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Elaine: Hey, Trist, welcome back to season 2!

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Trist: Season 2!

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Trist: Wow!

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Trist: What did you do on summer vacation, Elaine?

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Elaine: You know, did a little travel, did a little rest and

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Elaine: relaxation, did a little training, all the things that

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Elaine: you should do when you have a little bit more time.

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Elaine: What about

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Trist: Oh,

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Elaine: you?

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Trist: exactly.

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Trist: I mostly just sat around, laid awake all night thinking of new

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Trist: songs for our podcast.

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Elaine: How convenient for us.

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Elaine: What do we have this week?

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Trist: This season starts off with a bang.

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Trist: We have a co-written song by

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Trist: someone in one of my favorite

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Trist: groups and an all time classic

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Trist: songwriter.

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Trist: Even though this song came out maybe ten years after this great

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Trist: songwriter passed away.

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Elaine: Wait. What, like after he passed away?

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Trist: Yes. Story to follow.

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Trist: But this week's song is

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Trist: "Moonshine" from one of my

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Trist: favorite bands, Young Gun Silver

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Trist: Fox.

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Elaine: Ooh. Okay, I like this group.

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Elaine: You introduced this group to me.

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Elaine: So before we break, can you

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Elaine: remind our listeners how we are

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Elaine: listening to music on The Musician's Loupe?

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Trist: Here on The Musician's Loupe, we

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Trist: just like to encourage you to

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Trist: take a moment to improve your

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Trist: listening situation.

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Trist: You know what I mean.

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Trist: We all get in the habits of just throwing in the quick and easy

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Trist: way to listen to things.

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Trist: And sometimes, those are fantastic ways to do it.

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Trist: We here at The Musician's Loupe

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Trist: indulge in those manners

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Trist: ourselves.

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Trist: However, if you have the ability to take the time to grab the

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Trist: nicer set of headphones or move into the room that's got the

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Trist: good sound system, please take the time to do that.

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Trist: And if you can't do it now, just try to do that in your daily

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Trist: life now and again if you can.

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Trist: We strongly encourage it.

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Elaine: All right.

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Elaine: So we are going to leave the

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Elaine: links to the song in the show

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Elaine: notes, and we will be right

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Elaine: back.

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Elaine: Okay. So I have listened to

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Elaine: exactly one album by Young Gun

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Elaine: Silver Fox, and this song did

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Elaine: not sound like that album at all.

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Elaine: But

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Elaine: it was really, really cool.

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Trist: Oh really?

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Trist: Sure, I guess within their sonic

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Trist: palette, at least to my ear,

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Trist: they vary a little bit, but I

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Trist: guess we tuned in to different

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Trist: things maybe.

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Trist: Although again, this song has a co-writer unlike any other that

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Trist: they have used before.

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Trist: So maybe you're picking up on a lot of that.

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Elaine: Okay, well, tell me a little bit more about this song.

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Trist: Now that you mention it, I think they probably took on the model

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Trist: of this songwriter.

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Trist: The songwriter's Rod Temperton, who wrote so many great songs

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Trist: for Michael Jackson: "Off the Wall," "Rock with You,"

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Trist: "Thriller," etc.. And also, George Benson, "Give Me the Night,"

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Trist: back in the day he had his band, "Heatwave." They

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Trist: did "Always and Forever" and "Boogie Nights." Talk

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Trist: about hits! He

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Trist: even wrote a song for this band

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Trist: called The Manhattan Transfer.

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Trist: Back

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Trist: in the day, they were in studio recording an album at the same

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Trist: time that Michael Jackson was recording Thriller. They

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Trist: were in the same place, and they kept hearing all of these cool

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Trist: four part choruses from the Michael Jackson records, that was

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Trist: on "Off the Wall" and now going to be on "Thriller" that they

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Trist: were making, and started poking and saying, "Hey, man, those

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Trist: are great. Who

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Trist: writes these songs? It's

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Trist: got great four part things, and

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Trist: we're a four part vocal group.

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Trist: So,

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Trist: they found out that it was Rod Temperton and they asked him and

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Trist: he wrote two songs that they ended up recording, which is really,

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Trist: really cool. It

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Trist: was good to be able to hear those stories about those days, being

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Trist: in the group. So

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Trist: now that I think about it, even the way the chorus of this song,

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Trist: "Moonshine," goes, it has a lot of that. If

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Trist: you think of the way that that chorus sounds. Sure,

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Trist: it doesn't sound just like a Michael Jackson tune, but if you

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Trist: think of the production of the chorus, it's very similar the

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Trist: way that those harmonies, uh, lay, um, so I can kind of hear

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Trist: how that is different from the rest of their stuff.

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Elaine: I think it was more than just what you hear in those vocal

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Elaine: parts, because there were definitely a lot of layered

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Elaine: vocal parts in "AM Waves," which was the album that I was

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Elaine: referring to before.

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Elaine: I felt like this just kind of built in a different way.

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Elaine: I also think, though, that the chord structure in and of itself

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Elaine: was so distinct as opposed to a more classic yacht rock album

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Elaine: that we heard in "AM Wave."

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Elaine: So, I heard a lot of flat fives, flat twos.

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Elaine: I was taking a look at the chords online and they were all

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Elaine: over the place.

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Elaine: It was not your standard I, IV, V, vi, maybe minor ii in there.

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Elaine: I just felt like this was much

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Elaine: more inventive and much more fun

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Elaine: from a chord progression

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Elaine: perspective.

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Trist: Yeah. Apparently, Rod had most of the music kind of sorted.

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Trist: Andy Platts, the Young Gun of

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Trist: Young Gun Silver Fox, he had

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Trist: this wish as a young songwriter,

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Trist: "I would love to write like

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Trist: him."

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Trist: And so he was so bold to just make a demo copy of songs and

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Trist: sent it off to him.

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Trist: And Rod responded to him and said, yeah, you have potential.

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Trist: Come hang out and let's work on some music.

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Trist: So he actually just met up with

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Trist: him here in LA and they worked

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Trist: on this particular song and just

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Trist: nothing else ever happened with

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Trist: it.

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Trist: it was in like 2005, maybe, they worked on this together?

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Trist: Yeah, I thought that was kind of wild.

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Trist: so it just kind of sat there.

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Trist: And then when he's now doing

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Trist: this project with Shawn Lee, the

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Trist: Silver Fox, a few albums in, he

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Trist: finds this track that they had

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Trist: worked on and they realized that

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Trist: they should kind of reimagine it

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Trist: and get it out there to the

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Trist: world.

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Elaine: And

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Trist: So

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Elaine: we

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Trist: this.

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Elaine: get this masterpiece.

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Trist: Yeah. So that's a probably a good reason it sounds so much

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Trist: different than theirs because they didn't really write it.

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Trist: He just worked on it with him.

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Elaine: Mm, interesting.

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Elaine: I think this really links into one of the other things that I

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Elaine: heard, which is how the song built over time.

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Elaine: Again, comparing to the other

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Elaine: album that I listened to, this

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Elaine: is only one out of their many

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Elaine: albums.

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Elaine: The thing that I was hearing was that it was much more a quieter,

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Elaine: classic 70s style to begin with.

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Elaine: And then it builds.

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Elaine: There were layers of horns, there were layers of synths,

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Elaine: there were additional layers of vocals that just kept building

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Elaine: and building and building, as opposed to the more classic

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Elaine: yacht rock sound, where I don't think it had as much variation

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Elaine: in the orchestration.

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Trist: Shawn Lee, in my brain, the sonic mastermind of this band,

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Trist: understands that time period.

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Trist: I think knowing that it's a tune of his, kind of can imagine what

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Trist: all those sounds are and is really clever at copying an era

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Trist: or copying a sound without necessarily using a sample or

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Trist: using any direct quotes.

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Trist: It's like a voicing will be

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Trist: exactly like your ear remembers

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Trist: some old record or the sound of

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Trist: the way that the Rhodes sounds

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Trist: in the mix will sound just like

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Trist: a bunch of records that you've

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Trist: heard before, so I think all of

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Trist: their songs have that effect of,

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Trist: it's a brand new song that still

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Trist: feels like a song you've heard

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Trist: before.

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Elaine: I also appreciated how the

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Elaine: orchestration shifted and

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Elaine: changed over time to bring us

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Elaine: back down.

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Elaine: So right

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Trist: Mhm.

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Elaine: after the bridge, there's this chorus where everything

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Trist: Yeah.

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Elaine: is just a little quieter, right?

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Elaine: It's just the keys and whatever finger snaps they have.

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Elaine: And then there's a tiny little

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Elaine: trumpet that comes in the second

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Elaine: half of that chorus, and then it

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Elaine: brings it back up to what I

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Elaine: would consider, the maximalist,

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Elaine: very lush orchestration that

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Elaine: they had.

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Elaine: So

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Trist: Right.

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Elaine: I felt like that was something that was also very different.

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Elaine: It has a little more extremes.

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Elaine: It has a little bit more of like a thoughtful, quiet chorus there

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Elaine: before it goes wild again.

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Trist: Yep. He knows how to have the

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Trist: journey go up and down and at a

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Trist: very important spot where in

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Trist: some tunes that might be the

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Trist: spot where it's like a cappella

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Trist: or again where it comes down,

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Trist: everything drops out and it's

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Trist: more sparse.

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Trist: It's very typical of those.

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Trist: I think probably the only thing that this doesn't have that's

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Trist: probably more normal for one of those kinds of songs that he did

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Trist: back in the day – think of those Michael Jackson songs – is that

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Trist: late third verse.

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Trist: Now that I'm thinking about it, I wish they had written a third

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Trist: verse that, right when you kind of think the song is over...

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Trist: So in that way, this formula is a little bit more current.

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Trist: You know what I'm talking about where in the last ten, twenty

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Trist: years, it's more common to just really verse chorus there's only

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Trist: two verses really.

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Trist: And some of those classic Michael Jackson songs, there's

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Trist: like a third verse that happens, where nowadays, you're more used

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Trist: to like, let's just vamp out or just chorus, chorus, chorus all

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Trist: the way out.

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Trist: Anyway.

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Elaine: Which is what this song does.

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Elaine: Yeah.

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Trist: Yeah, exactly.

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Trist: This is more like that.

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Elaine: I think that that is an interesting observation,

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Elaine: especially since we have talked about this in Season 1.

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Elaine: So let me ask you a little bit

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Elaine: more about why this particular

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Elaine: song out of their entire

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Elaine: discography.

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Trist: I think I really liked that, I

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Trist: think the two of them are good

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Trist: at writing songs for this

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Trist: project.

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Trist: This Rod Temperton one, it just shows his excellence.

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Trist: Everything else is the same.

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Trist: Literally just added him to the mix of the songwriting part.

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Trist: And to me, this track just

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Trist: sticks out just ever so slightly

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Trist: above and beyond all of their

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Trist: other ones.

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Trist: So it has the whatever the unknown piece is.

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Trist: He had the magic touch of just

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Trist: knowing how to write these

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Trist: incredible songs.

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Trist: Maybe that's why.

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Trist: Because, of course, being one of my current favorite bands, I

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Trist: went the whole first season and didn't even include them.

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Trist: So, it was just probably hard to decide.

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Trist: Every week I would think, oh, maybe this is the week we do a

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Trist: Young Gun Silver Fox song and I can never decide.

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Trist: So finally I was like, okay, no, this is the one for sure.

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Trist: So maybe just because it

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Trist: displays his songwriting

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Trist: excellence.

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Elaine: I'm really interested in what you said earlier about when the

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Elaine: song was written, and then when it was actually released,

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Elaine: because it seemed like it had a longer bake time than maybe some

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Elaine: of their other pieces.

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Elaine: Can you talk a little bit about how that might impact the

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Elaine: maturity of the song?

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Trist: It's possible.

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Trist: I don't know.

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Trist: if I were privy to the actual demo that they put together when

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Trist: they were literally working on it, apparently when they got

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Trist: together, they did record themselves a little demo of it

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Trist: to remember it.

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Trist: And that's the only time they worked on anything.

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Trist: You say bake time as if, oh,

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Trist: over the time we've changed and

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Trist: amended and added and shaped the

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Trist: song.

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Trist: No, I think he pulled it out of the drawer and said, "Hey, check

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Trist: out this song!

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Trist: Cool!

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Trist: Let's record it."

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Trist: What I think of when you mentioned the bake time was

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Trist: like, oh, I wrote this song ten years ago, and then nine years

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Trist: ago I changed that.

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Trist: And seven years ago I changed that.

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Trist: And five years ago I changed that.

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Trist: And it's had time to just sit there and I've slowly chipped

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Trist: away at it and let it happen.

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Trist: I don't really know any more of the story other than they did

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Trist: get together to write this.

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Trist: And they did a little demo of it and he forgot about it.

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Trist: And when they're making another album just happened upon it,

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Trist: realized they should record it.

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Trist: So I don't know how different- maybe if I can somehow track

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Trist: that down, we can add it.

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Trist: If I ever find it, we'll add a link to the listening list.

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Trist: But it would be curious to see

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Trist: how different at all other than

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Trist: just modern recording sounds, if

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Trist: there's anything that much

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Trist: different from the way it was

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Trist: originally done.

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Elaine: The reason I ask is because last season we talked about a Laila

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Elaine: Bialy track, where she'd actually rewritten it and

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Elaine: evolved this piece over what, like a decade and a half or so

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Trist: Right.

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Elaine: added lyrics afterwards.

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Elaine: It had started out as an

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Elaine: instrumental, and as she was

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Elaine: sharing about it, she was

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Elaine: sharing about her process of

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Elaine: really reinventing the song

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Elaine: multiple times.

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Elaine: And so I wasn't sure whether

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Elaine: this was one of those cases or

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Elaine: not.

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Elaine: And it sounds like it's not, but

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Elaine: I just thought it was an

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Elaine: interesting link.

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Trist: Ah, yeah.

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Trist: No, from what I understand of the story, it was kind of that.

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Trist: Like, "I can't believe I just wrote a song with Rod Temperton

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Trist: and yet-" How could you do that experience and then just forget

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Trist: that you did it?

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Trist: I'd be telling everyone I knew for the rest of my life that I

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Trist: wrote a song with Rod Temperton.

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Trist: But Andy's pretty amazing.

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Trist: So his songs are strong on their own.

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Trist: I guess it's just one of those things.

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Trist: He just forgot it until he didn't.

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Elaine: Now, one thing that I also

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Elaine: thought was interesting was the

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Elaine: role of both the horns and the

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Elaine: voices.

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Elaine: And the reason I say that is that there are certain parts of

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Elaine: the horns where it's actually some kind of a response.

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Elaine: It fills in that empty spot the way

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Trist: Mhm.

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Elaine: an electric guitar would fill

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Elaine: right after the lead singer

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Elaine: stops.

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Elaine: And in other places, it's more

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Elaine: texture where you have horns

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Elaine: that are mixed really, really

Speaker: 00:13:40

Elaine: far back.

Speaker: 00:13:41

Elaine: And the same thing happens with the vocals.

Speaker: 00:13:44

Elaine: You have these vocals that

Speaker: 00:13:46

Elaine: sometimes are filling that same

Speaker: 00:13:48

Elaine: spot.

Speaker: 00:13:49

Elaine: And in other places, it's kind of more of a background texture.

Speaker: 00:13:53

Elaine: So

Speaker: 00:13:53

Trist: Mhm.

Speaker: 00:13:54

Elaine: I just thought it was really interesting how both the

Speaker: 00:13:56

Elaine: instruments as well as the voices were used in both of

Speaker: 00:14:00

Elaine: these different contexts to provide that level of feel.

Speaker: 00:14:04

Elaine: And also on top of that, there

Speaker: 00:14:06

Elaine: were a couple of different types

Speaker: 00:14:08

Elaine: of keys that again, fed into

Speaker: 00:14:10

Elaine: that texture.

Speaker: 00:14:11

Elaine: Like we had the Rhodes, but we had a Rhodes in like a much

Speaker: 00:14:14

Elaine: brighter synth laid on top of one another that really fed into

Speaker: 00:14:19

Elaine: the feeling that we got from different parts of the song.

Speaker: 00:14:23

Trist: I think that's good production and arranging on their part.

Speaker: 00:14:26

Trist: Again, Shawn Lee, the Silver Fox.

Speaker: 00:14:29

Trist: He knows that stuff.

Speaker: 00:14:31

Trist: He's so good at that.

Speaker: 00:14:32

Trist: So, not surprising that he would

Speaker: 00:14:34

Trist: understand the role he has every

Speaker: 00:14:35

Trist: time knowing, Oh, no, these horn

Speaker: 00:14:37

Trist: parts are indeed like rhythmic

Speaker: 00:14:39

Trist: responses.

Speaker: 00:14:40

Trist: And oh, this is a texture, this

Speaker: 00:14:41

Trist: is a contrapuntal, a little

Speaker: 00:14:43

Trist: countermelody back here or a

Speaker: 00:14:45

Trist: little descant up top or

Speaker: 00:14:46

Trist: whatever.

Speaker: 00:14:47

Trist: And same with the vocals.

Speaker: 00:14:48

Trist: Understanding what the role is

Speaker: 00:14:50

Trist: is important when you're

Speaker: 00:14:52

Trist: arranging and producing a track

Speaker: 00:14:55

Trist: like this.

Speaker: 00:14:56

Elaine: So I'm now going to switch gears and ask you, what did you think

Speaker: 00:15:00

Elaine: about the lyrics?

Speaker: 00:15:01

Trist: The lyrics are cool.

Speaker: 00:15:02

Trist: It's not incredibly deep.

Speaker: 00:15:05

Trist: I like the not brand new allusion to, your love is like a

Speaker: 00:15:09

Trist: drug, etc.. that's not the first time that's been used.

Speaker: 00:15:13

Trist: and yet, still done really effectively.

Speaker: 00:15:15

Trist: Yeah, I think it's cool.

Speaker: 00:15:17

Elaine: I totally got that as well, the whole overused trope about your

Speaker: 00:15:21

Elaine: love is all of these things.

Speaker: 00:15:23

Elaine: But I did find the bridge really interesting.

Speaker: 00:15:27

Elaine: The first verse is talking about

Speaker: 00:15:29

Elaine: him and how there's like

Speaker: 00:15:31

Elaine: escapism through the

Speaker: 00:15:32

Elaine: relationship.

Speaker: 00:15:33

Elaine: And the second verse is about

Speaker: 00:15:34

Elaine: her and how he wants her to come

Speaker: 00:15:36

Elaine: to him.

Speaker: 00:15:37

Elaine: There's this description of their relationship.

Speaker: 00:15:39

Elaine: What I wrote down when I

Speaker: 00:15:41

Elaine: listened to the bridge was "no

Speaker: 00:15:42

Elaine: thoughts, only vibes," which is,

Speaker: 00:15:44

Elaine: you know, very common kind of

Speaker: 00:15:46

Elaine: phrase nowadays because he says,

Speaker: 00:15:49

Elaine: "there ain't no rhyme or

Speaker: 00:15:50

Elaine: reason."

Speaker: 00:15:51

Elaine: But he does say that this

Speaker: 00:15:53

Elaine: relationship is important to

Speaker: 00:15:55

Elaine: him.

Speaker: 00:15:55

Elaine: And so he's just like, I don't know, the vibes are really cool.

Speaker: 00:15:58

Elaine: So let's just keep on going.

Speaker: 00:16:00

Elaine: And, that really to me

Speaker: 00:16:02

Elaine: underscored the importance of

Speaker: 00:16:04

Elaine: the bridge, which is what we've

Speaker: 00:16:05

Elaine: said before in Season 1, just

Speaker: 00:16:07

Elaine: how important it is to think

Speaker: 00:16:10

Elaine: about all of the lyrics

Speaker: 00:16:11

Elaine: together, not just individual

Speaker: 00:16:12

Elaine: pieces, but, there's a compare,

Speaker: 00:16:14

Elaine: there's a contrast, there is a

Speaker: 00:16:16

Elaine: her and me kind of this third

Speaker: 00:16:19

Elaine: person.

Speaker: 00:16:20

Elaine: And in the middle of this, there is a sense of, oh, I know this

Speaker: 00:16:25

Elaine: doesn't make sense.

Speaker: 00:16:26

Elaine: I know this is bad for me.

Speaker: 00:16:27

Elaine: And at the same time, this is what brings me joy.

Speaker: 00:16:30

Elaine: This is what brings me light.

Speaker: 00:16:31

Trist: Mhm.

Speaker: 00:16:32

Elaine: So yeah, so I just thought it was not necessarily as clever as

Speaker: 00:16:35

Elaine: any of the other pieces that we listened to, but certainly a

Speaker: 00:16:39

Elaine: little more subtle than I think, if you're just bopping to the

Speaker: 00:16:42

Elaine: lyrics, you probably wouldn't catch all of that.

Speaker: 00:16:44

Trist: Yeah. True.

Speaker: 00:16:46

Elaine: Well, any last things to say

Speaker: 00:16:48

Elaine: about this song before we move

Speaker: 00:16:49

Elaine: on?

Speaker: 00:16:49

Trist: Um, well, check out the rest of

Speaker: 00:16:51

Trist: the band's material if you get a

Speaker: 00:16:53

Trist: chance.

Speaker: 00:16:54

Trist: Definitely a favorite, and you'll hear the difference that

Speaker: 00:16:57

Trist: Elaine was mentioning.

Speaker: 00:16:59

Trist: Not all the songs sound exactly

Speaker: 00:17:01

Trist: like this, but they're all very

Speaker: 00:17:02

Trist: well written and well produced,

Speaker: 00:17:04

Trist: well sung.

Speaker: 00:17:05

Trist: And if you can see them live and in person.

Speaker: 00:17:08

Trist: Wow.

Speaker: 00:17:08

Trist: Please do that.

Speaker: 00:17:09

Trist: They are based in the UK, but

Speaker: 00:17:11

Trist: they do get around the world a

Speaker: 00:17:13

Trist: bit, so keep your eye out for

Speaker: 00:17:14

Trist: them.

Speaker: 00:17:15

Elaine: And so with that, we are moving on to.

Speaker: 00:17:17

Trist: Mailbag. Mailbag.

Speaker: 00:17:22

Trist: Mailbag.

Speaker: 00:17:27

Elaine: That's right, The Mailbag.

Speaker: 00:17:29

Elaine: And if you would like to get a

Speaker: 00:17:30

Elaine: hold of us, you can email us at

Speaker: 00:17:33

Elaine: themusiciansloupe@gmail.com.

Speaker: 00:17:35

Elaine: That's L o u p e. Or @themusiciansloupe at both

Speaker: 00:17:39

Elaine: Threads and Instagram.

Speaker: 00:17:42

Elaine: So this week we have a Threads

Speaker: 00:17:45

Elaine: post from Heath Allen from June

Speaker: 00:17:48

Elaine: of 2026.

Speaker: 00:17:50

Elaine: And he writes, "When I was a

Speaker: 00:17:52

Elaine: young musician, I used to sit

Speaker: 00:17:54

Elaine: around playing music for hours

Speaker: 00:17:55

Elaine: just for the pure pleasure of

Speaker: 00:17:56

Elaine: it.

Speaker: 00:17:57

Elaine: I wasn't necessarily learning songs for bands or rehearsing

Speaker: 00:18:00

Elaine: for anything in particular.

Speaker: 00:18:01

Elaine: I just loved learning and playing.

Speaker: 00:18:03

Elaine: Now, somewhere over forty years

Speaker: 00:18:05

Elaine: into my career, I'm almost

Speaker: 00:18:07

Elaine: always preparing, learning, and

Speaker: 00:18:08

Elaine: rehearsing for various bands and

Speaker: 00:18:09

Elaine: upcoming gigs.

Speaker: 00:18:11

Elaine: However, I have recently made

Speaker: 00:18:12

Elaine: sure to keep that perspective

Speaker: 00:18:14

Elaine: and remember that I love doing

Speaker: 00:18:15

Elaine: this.

Speaker: 00:18:16

Elaine: It's not work or an obligation.

Speaker: 00:18:18

Elaine: It's not a chore that is keeping me from something else.

Speaker: 00:18:21

Elaine: It is something I love and enjoy.

Speaker: 00:18:23

Elaine: This perspective is so important

Speaker: 00:18:24

Elaine: and makes all this quote unquote

Speaker: 00:18:26

Elaine: homework so much infinitely more

Speaker: 00:18:27

Elaine: enjoyable."

Speaker: 00:18:28

Trist: Hm.

Speaker: 00:18:28

Elaine: Yeah. So

Speaker: 00:18:28

Trist: Mhm.

Speaker: 00:18:29

Elaine: I guess my question for you is how do you keep things fresh?

Speaker: 00:18:31

Elaine: How do you keep this perspective that, music is fun.

Speaker: 00:18:35

Elaine: Music is a privilege.

Speaker: 00:18:36

Trist: I think for me, rather than the

Speaker: 00:18:39

Trist: same way that this person

Speaker: 00:18:41

Trist: mentions that they're sitting

Speaker: 00:18:42

Trist: around playing, just for the

Speaker: 00:18:44

Trist: sake of it rather than for a

Speaker: 00:18:46

Trist: particular gig.

Speaker: 00:18:47

Trist: What comes to mind for me that I

Speaker: 00:18:49

Trist: experience is because there are

Speaker: 00:18:51

Trist: a lot of gigs, whether I'm doing

Speaker: 00:18:53

Trist: sound or whether I'm performing,

Speaker: 00:18:55

Trist: singing, etc. I'm around a lot

Speaker: 00:18:57

Trist: of music and have a lot of it

Speaker: 00:18:59

Trist: going on.

Speaker: 00:19:00

Trist: I realized that I stopped listening.

Speaker: 00:19:04

Trist: In one way, doing the pod has

Speaker: 00:19:05

Trist: helped because, of course, I've

Speaker: 00:19:07

Trist: had to remind myself of some of

Speaker: 00:19:09

Trist: these songs that I wanted to

Speaker: 00:19:10

Trist: suggest and for us to talk

Speaker: 00:19:11

Trist: about.

Speaker: 00:19:12

Trist: One of the best things about it is it's forced me to- Sometimes,

Speaker: 00:19:15

Trist: even when preparing for this, when I'm listening for songs

Speaker: 00:19:18

Trist: that I want to choose and I'll have three or four, I'll listen

Speaker: 00:19:20

Trist: to them again and just to listen to them and realize and remember

Speaker: 00:19:26

Trist: just how much I love that, I tend to just feel better.

Speaker: 00:19:30

Trist: I'm in a better mood.

Speaker: 00:19:31

Trist: Sometimes, I'll just put on a record and realize I hadn't for

Speaker: 00:19:35

Trist: weeks or months or whatever, or haven't had enough plane trips

Speaker: 00:19:40

Trist: where I wasn't sleeping, where I wanted to just listen to music.

Speaker: 00:19:43

Trist: And every time I do it, when it's been a long time, what I'm

Speaker: 00:19:47

Trist: doing it just to listen instead of for a project or for some

Speaker: 00:19:51

Trist: kind of thing I need to learn, it's always refreshing.

Speaker: 00:19:55

Trist: As if I don't know that that's something about myself, right?

Speaker: 00:19:58

Trist: It's like the gym, like you haven't worked out for a while

Speaker: 00:20:00

Trist: and then you work out and you feel amazing the rest of the day

Speaker: 00:20:03

Trist: as if that's something you didn't know was true.

Speaker: 00:20:06

Trist: Like, wow, this working out's amazing.

Speaker: 00:20:08

Trist: I feel great all day.

Speaker: 00:20:09

Trist: Why don't I do this all the time?

Speaker: 00:20:11

Trist: Right?

Speaker: 00:20:11

Trist: I have that same feeling when I listen to music that I haven't

Speaker: 00:20:15

Trist: listened to just casually for enjoyment for a long time.

Speaker: 00:20:18

Trist: I feel so much better.

Speaker: 00:20:19

Trist: When I read this, that's what I think.

Speaker: 00:20:21

Trist: How about you?

Speaker: 00:20:22

Trist: What kind of things do you do?

Speaker: 00:20:24

Trist: How do you work it in so it

Speaker: 00:20:25

Trist: doesn't always feel like a chore

Speaker: 00:20:27

Trist: every time you're dealing with

Speaker: 00:20:28

Trist: music?

Speaker: 00:20:28

Elaine: That's an interesting question because I'm not sure it ever

Speaker: 00:20:32

Elaine: loses it for me.

Speaker: 00:20:33

Elaine: And it's primarily because I am not a full time musician.

Speaker: 00:20:36

Elaine: I have to choose to do music.

Speaker: 00:20:38

Elaine: My default is not to do music.

Speaker: 00:20:40

Elaine: And so when I get to do music, it is always a privilege.

Speaker: 00:20:43

Trist: Mm. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:43

Elaine: I can always think of it like, yeah, this is a special time.

Speaker: 00:20:48

Elaine: This is a time that I really

Speaker: 00:20:50

Elaine: appreciate and that I don't

Speaker: 00:20:52

Elaine: normally get.

Speaker: 00:20:53

Elaine: And so even if I'm playing forty weekends a year, forty weekends

Speaker: 00:20:56

Elaine: a year is a lot!

Speaker: 00:20:57

Elaine: I'm doing a lot of special services.

Speaker: 00:20:58

Elaine: I'm playing a lot of music and really challenging myself.

Speaker: 00:21:01

Elaine: But every time I do that, I think to myself, yeah, there is

Speaker: 00:21:05

Elaine: no better place for me to be than right here on this stage.

Speaker: 00:21:09

Elaine: Even in rehearsal, I think to myself, this is a privilege.

Speaker: 00:21:13

Elaine: Even if I'm not doing as well as

Speaker: 00:21:15

Elaine: I want to, or if I realize, oh,

Speaker: 00:21:17

Elaine: there's something more I have to

Speaker: 00:21:18

Elaine: drill.

Speaker: 00:21:19

Elaine: And if I'm sitting there

Speaker: 00:21:20

Elaine: drilling, I think to myself,

Speaker: 00:21:22

Elaine: this is a privilege because I

Speaker: 00:21:23

Elaine: don't get to do this for a full

Speaker: 00:21:25

Elaine: time job.

Speaker: 00:21:26

Trist: Yeah, that would make the difference.

Speaker: 00:21:28

Trist: I think someone who has a quote unquote real job and then does

Speaker: 00:21:33

Trist: this as a quote unquote hobby.

Speaker: 00:21:34

Trist: I know that's very simplifying it.

Speaker: 00:21:36

Trist: And I know that's not always the

Speaker: 00:21:37

Trist: case, but, when it's not the

Speaker: 00:21:39

Trist: main thing, I think you look at

Speaker: 00:21:41

Trist: it more like, ooh, I get to do

Speaker: 00:21:42

Trist: this.

Speaker: 00:21:42

Trist: I love the way that you said that I get to do this.

Speaker: 00:21:45

Trist: And then if it is your main thing, then even in a situation

Speaker: 00:21:49

Trist: where you get to do this.

Speaker: 00:21:51

Trist: So, being someone who is a professional musician and that's

Speaker: 00:21:54

Trist: the main job.

Speaker: 00:21:56

Trist: I still have occasions where,

Speaker: 00:21:57

Trist: oh, I'm just getting together

Speaker: 00:21:58

Trist: with these friends and we're

Speaker: 00:21:59

Trist: doing music.

Speaker: 00:22:00

Trist: It's kind of the same, but you're right, I think it hits

Speaker: 00:22:03

Trist: differently when the thing that you normally do is also music.

Speaker: 00:22:07

Trist: So that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker: 00:22:09

Elaine: I think another thing that happens for me: previous to

Speaker: 00:22:13

Elaine: this, I'd been playing in much more community style centers

Speaker: 00:22:17

Elaine: where I was the best musician.

Speaker: 00:22:19

Elaine: And sometimes that could be a drag, because it felt like, oh,

Speaker: 00:22:22

Elaine: man, when do I get to play with people that I don't need to

Speaker: 00:22:25

Elaine: coach or the people who I don't necessarily need to invest so

Speaker: 00:22:29

Elaine: much in, but what can I receive?

Speaker: 00:22:31

Elaine: And when I was in that situation, one of the ways that

Speaker: 00:22:35

Elaine: I would go to receive that life and that investment would be to

Speaker: 00:22:40

Elaine: play at other churches or play underneath better musicians than

Speaker: 00:22:43

Elaine: I was like, be exposed to different kinds of contexts to

Speaker: 00:22:47

Elaine: not only challenge myself, but to be the weakest link.

Speaker: 00:22:50

Elaine: And in my current situation, I am quite often the weakest link,

Speaker: 00:22:54

Elaine: which as a strong musician is such a privilege.

Speaker: 00:22:58

Elaine: When you get to play, and I I've seen you play with the top

Speaker: 00:23:01

Elaine: people in the business, and that is a huge privilege because it's

Speaker: 00:23:06

Elaine: so much fun when everyone is just amazing at what they do.

Speaker: 00:23:10

Elaine: And so I think that that is something that I am very

Speaker: 00:23:13

Elaine: privileged to do now, is to be in a situation where quite often

Speaker: 00:23:19

Elaine: I can hold my own, but I'm playing with some of the best

Speaker: 00:23:22

Elaine: musicians in the area.

Speaker: 00:23:24

Trist: I definitely relate to that.

Speaker: 00:23:26

Trist: It's much better.

Speaker: 00:23:26

Trist: I'm never the best musician in the music things I'm doing.

Speaker: 00:23:29

Trist: I'm usually at the bottom of the rung and bottom of it all and

Speaker: 00:23:32

Trist: that's the best.

Speaker: 00:23:33

Trist: I like that the most, being

Speaker: 00:23:35

Trist: around amazing musicians you can

Speaker: 00:23:37

Trist: learn from.

Speaker: 00:23:38

Elaine: And I don't mean to pan being the best musician because

Speaker: 00:23:42

Elaine: there's a responsibility and a role that we have as experienced

Speaker: 00:23:45

Elaine: musicians to invest in the next generation of musicians.

Speaker: 00:23:50

Elaine: And I definitely feel that as

Speaker: 00:23:51

Elaine: important and it's valuable and

Speaker: 00:23:53

Elaine: I see that, but sometimes it's

Speaker: 00:23:55

Elaine: just exhausting to have to give

Speaker: 00:23:58

Elaine: at

Speaker: 00:23:58

Trist: Right.

Speaker: 00:23:58

Elaine: all times as opposed to feeling

Speaker: 00:24:00

Elaine: like there is a celebration in

Speaker: 00:24:02

Elaine: music.

Speaker: 00:24:03

Trist: Yeah.

Speaker: 00:24:03

Elaine: Well, any other thoughts on this before we wrap up?

Speaker: 00:24:07

Trist: I think that's it for this week.

Speaker: 00:24:09

Elaine: All right.

Speaker: 00:24:10

Elaine: Well, as we wrap up, we have a

Speaker: 00:24:12

Elaine: couple of things to share with

Speaker: 00:24:13

Elaine: you.

Speaker: 00:24:13

Elaine: First of all, we are starting a brand new playlist.

Speaker: 00:24:16

Elaine: As you know, we started a playlist for season one and

Speaker: 00:24:19

Elaine: we've decided that we are going to start a brand new playlist

Speaker: 00:24:23

Elaine: just with the songs that we are covering in Season 2.

Speaker: 00:24:26

Trist: Yeah that's right.

Speaker: 00:24:27

Trist: So please check out the playlist

Speaker: 00:24:29

Trist: for Season 1 and share it with

Speaker: 00:24:32

Trist: friends.

Speaker: 00:24:33

Trist: Please share it with some people.

Speaker: 00:24:34

Trist: Even if you don't share your favorite pod episode, share the

Speaker: 00:24:38

Trist: playlist and just let them know that this comes from a podcast

Speaker: 00:24:42

Trist: that you listen to and that if they're curious to dig a little

Speaker: 00:24:46

Trist: deeper into a song, you know where to find us.

Speaker: 00:24:49

Elaine: One of the pieces of feedback that I've gotten just from the

Speaker: 00:24:52

Elaine: playlist is people scroll through and they're like, wow,

Speaker: 00:24:56

Elaine: that really is very diverse.

Speaker: 00:24:59

Trist: Mm!

Speaker: 00:24:59

Elaine: And so yeah, that's been a big

Speaker: 00:25:02

Elaine: fun part of doing this podcast

Speaker: 00:25:04

Elaine: is listening to all sorts of

Speaker: 00:25:05

Elaine: different music.

Speaker: 00:25:06

Elaine: And so people are going to

Speaker: 00:25:07

Elaine: resonate with different types of

Speaker: 00:25:08

Elaine: songs.

Speaker: 00:25:09

Elaine: And at the same time, this is a

Speaker: 00:25:10

Elaine: journey of exploration for all

Speaker: 00:25:12

Elaine: of us.

Speaker: 00:25:12

Elaine: So definitely encourage you to share that playlist.

Speaker: 00:25:15

Trist: Please do.

Speaker: 00:25:16

Trist: And, again, keep your eye out

Speaker: 00:25:18

Trist: for the things coming in this

Speaker: 00:25:20

Trist: second season.

Speaker: 00:25:20

Trist: We're glad to be back with you.

Speaker: 00:25:22

Elaine: All right.

Speaker: 00:25:23

Elaine: Have a great week.

Speaker: 00:26:08

Elaine: I'm

Speaker: 00:26:08

Trist: See?

Speaker: 00:26:08

Elaine: not going to share.

Speaker: 00:26:09

Trist: That's why I can't say things.

Speaker: 00:26:10

Elaine: I got warthog tusks.

Speaker: 00:26:12

Trist: Super loud to you, oblivious out here.

Speaker: 00:26:14

Elaine: I'm like,

Speaker: 00:26:15

Trist: I

Speaker: 00:26:15

Elaine: come on, dude.

Speaker: 00:26:16

Elaine: Like.

Speaker: 00:26:16

Trist: got you.

Speaker: 00:26:17

Elaine: I didn't want to interrupt you.

Speaker: 00:26:18

Elaine: You're on a roll.

Speaker: 00:26:19

Trist: So now this series will be seventy four episodes long.

Speaker: 00:26:23

Trist: No.

Speaker: 00:26:23

Elaine: What is that phrase again?

Speaker: 00:26:25

Trist: even if it's ten years from now and you're just joining us, it's

Speaker: 00:26:27

Trist: still just season two.

Speaker: 00:26:28

Elaine: I do have a pokey in my mouth right now, so.

Speaker: 00:26:31

Trist: I was waiting for your curiosity.

Speaker: 00:26:32

Elaine: Hold on.

Speaker: 00:26:33

Elaine: Let me say that again.

Speaker: 00:26:34

Trist: Rewind.

Speaker: 00:26:36

Trist: Welcome back everybody.